A Tale of Two Thieves
by OMIDragonrider
Summary: A story about Delvin and Vex and how their relationship evolved over the years, from Vex hating Delvin to Vex hating Delvin a little less. May become M in later chapters.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: Please leave reviews with comments/suggestions so I can get an idea of what you think. I haven't actively shipped Delvin and Vex until only recently, but I completely fell in love with the pairing. This is also my first fic in the Skyrim universe and my first fic with these characters so let me know what to add/take out!**

It was a relatively cool evening – the kind of weather that wasn't cold enough to make you shiver, but still made you crave a warm fire and a stiff drink. For Windhelm, this was practically summer. The guards made their patrols around the city. Jarl Ulfric Stormcloak ordered to have his troops doubled in case the Thalmor decided to make any unexpected visits. This was great for the worshippers of Talos and the Nords who wanted their traditions preserved, but not so good for thieves. Delvin Mallory stuck to the shadows, hiding behind a stack of barrels as one of the guards walked by him. Very carefully and quietly, he eventually reached his destination – Calixto's House of Curiosities.

Delvin quietly snuck up to the door, noticing the mark he had left there a few months ago. His memory was never the greatest and it was useful to him to mark which places had good loot. Doing a bit of research after the first time he had robbed Calixto's blind, he discovered that the mad man was actually a mad man with an excellent connection to rare and expensive items. Not even a month later, he had learned that Calixto was back on his feet and that he had even more of these "curiosities." Delvin was not one to let a good opportunity pass him up and returned to the House of Curiosities every few months to see what the Imperial had to offer and every time he was not disappointed. Surely, this time would be no different.

Delvin got his lockpick into the lock and twisted his knife, frowning when it didn't budge. He had this door memorized. He knew exactly where the pick was supposed to go. Why wasn't it working? After a few more tries, the lockpick eventually gave up on him and broke.

"Damn," he whispered, realizing that the man had finally gotten smart and had installed new locks. He was going to need more lockpicks. He turned around to leave when he was met with a pair of legs in Windhelm Guard's Armor. He looked up and surely enough, there was the rest of the guard attached to them. "Damn," he repeated, louder this time.

Escaping from the Palace of the Kings was easy enough. The guards threw Delvin into a cell with nothing but the ragged trousers on his back and one lockpick. Most jails gave these to their prisoners as a joke, confident that this wouldn't be enough to escape. Little did they know that this was all Delvin would need. After picking the lock and confirming his suspicion that Calixto's new locks were of very high quality, he snuck his way past the guards and up to what appeared to be their barracks. Luckily, he was arrested at just the right time. It was late enough for most of the guards to be asleep, but too early for them to start to wake up. Two guards were awake and chatting away at a table, but for an excellent sneak thief like Delvin, he knew it wasn't going to be too much of a problem.

Over in the corner was the prisoner belongings chest. If Delvin could just get over to it without alerting the guards of his presence, he could get his armor and dagger back, not to mention the gold from a heist he pulled prior to arriving in Windhelm. Slowly and carefully, Delvin snuck over to the chest, crouching low and taking advantage of the shadows cast by the dimly lit room. Unlocking the chest, he grabbed his things and left, his silent footsteps trailing out of the palace.

That night, Delvin rented a room in the Candlehearth Hall and used it to get back into his armor and count out his coin. As he sat by the fire with a stiff drink, like he had planned, he began to reflect on what had happened. Even when he was younger, Delvin had a knack for telling when things were about to change, for better or for worse. He could tell exactly how his luck was going to turn from small events such as breaking into a house to find its owner blind, deaf, and drunk or from attempting to break into a place he had always found success, only to discover that the locks had been improved. It was small things like this that were often a defining moment in his life. Perhaps this is why it didn't surprise him to see a man walking over to him.

He was a Nord, by the looks of it, and he was tall and relatively well built. Still, his frame did not suggest he was a mercenary or a soldier. In fact, he looked more like Delvin – a thief. The man sat across from Delvin and gave him a grin. "I recognize you."

"You do, eh?" Delvin asked with a shrug, taking a swig of ale. He had been to many places all over both Skyrim and Solstheim so being recognized was not much of a surprise to him.

"Yes, you're the one who tried to break into Calixto's," the man said, pouring his own pint and drinking from it.

Delvin's eyes widened ever so slightly. "You saw me?" he asked, genuinely surprised. He had worked hard to be considered the best sneak in all of Skyrim and not being seen was a big part of this.

"Well, I didn't see you until the guards were dragging you off. I must say, I'm impressed. Not a lot of people can get by me without me noticing. Who are you?" the man asked, giving Delvin a curious look.

"Well that depends on who's asking," Delvin replied, somewhat wary of the Nord having a conversation with him.

The man smiled and held out his hand. "Brynjolf," he introduced. "Second in command for the Thieves Guild. Came here to rob Calixto's myself, but you were already being taken away from it by the time I got there."

Delvin shook Brynjolf's hand sheepishly. "The Thieves Guild, huh? I'm Delvin Mallory. You might've heard of my brother, Glover. He's a guild member out on Raven Rock. And I've hit Calixto's plenty of times, but the man finally got smart and changed the locks. Real high quality too."

Brynjolf nodded, finishing his drink. "I could tell. Tried opening it myself, after you left actually. If I may ask, did you happen to notice a symbol carved into the wall? It was just next to the door."

Delvin grinned proudly. "I did. Made it myself a few years back. It's how I know I place has good stuff or not, save myself some time."

Brynjolf appeared to be thoughtful about this before speaking again. "We could use someone like you," he decided, "How would you like to join the guild?"

Delvin considered this offer carefully, on one hand, he had grown used to working alone. While his brother had aided him plenty of times in the past before moving to Raven Rock, he had learned to enjoy the solitude. On the other hand, a nearly endless supply of gold. He was no stranger to the tales of the Thieves Guild. He heard that they had a room that was literally filled with gold, rivaling Deathbrand's own treasure hoard. If all of this was true, it would be foolish for him not to join. "Alright," he said confidently, "I'm in."

"I take it your Brynjolf's protégé?" a redguard woman asked Delvin when he entered the Ragged Flagon, "He has a thing for bringing in strays."

Delvin simply shrugged, unsure of what to say. "I guess so," he finally decided upon, "And I'm no stray."

The woman chuckled lightly and took a sip of her drink. "Don't worry about it, most of the guys in the guild were brought in by Brynjolf too. He's not exactly in charge of getting people into the guild, but he does it the most often so you can trust me when I say you won't be the newest member for long. For Divines' sake, stop looking so nervous."

"I'm not nervous," Delvin protested.

The man behind the counter laughed at the exchange. "Ton, leave our new member alone," he said before smiling at Delvin, "The name's Vekel. I'm the barkeeper here. And that is my wife, Tonilia. She's like that with everyone, so try not to worry about it too much. She's also the best fence in Tamriel and you can sell her anything you steal for an excellent price."

"I'm also one of the lookouts so don't try anything funny," Tonilia threatened lightly. Even though Delvin was visibly older and stronger than her, she knew that strength wasn't the only way to take down an enemy. Sometimes, all you had to do was send a bigger, stronger man after them. That was where Dirge came in.

Brinjolf clapped a hand against Delvin's back. "Making friends, I see," he said happily, "Well, now it's time for you to meet Mercer. He's the head of the guild and he's very interested in your skill set."

The next thing Delvin knew, he was being led into a storage closet with a false back panel, revealing a set of rooms to his right and a door straight ahead. Behind this door was a large room that was mostly lit from the light shining from above. If Delvin listened hard enough, he could faintly hear the market stalls advertising their goods. He realized that he was directly beneath the center of the city. He looked around at the people in the room. Two of them, one being addressed as Gallus and the other Karliah, were discussing archery techniques.

"So you must be Delvin," a gruff voice called out, directing Delvin's attention to it, "Welcome to the cistern."

Delvin looked over at the voice in question. It belonged to a fellow Breton who was wearing armor similar to Brynjolf's. "As you may have heard, I'm Mercer Frey. I run the Thieves Guild. I take it your our possible new recruit."

"Possible?" Delvin asked, perplexed. He was certain he was already a member.

Mercer smiled. "What, you didn't think we were gonna just let you in, did you? We just have a little test for you."

"What sort of test?" Delvin asked apprehensively. Brynjolf or the others never mentioned anything about a test. Perhaps it was to ensure that he could not prepare for whatever it was beforehand.

"It's nothing too difficult, unless you've never stolen anything in your life," Mercer said with a grin, clearly challenging Delvin's abilities.

"Oh, I can assure you that I've stolen plenty of things in my life. Just give me the job," Delvin said confidently. Like Mercer said, it would be easy, especially for someone with his skills.

"Very well," Mercer said, going over to his desk, "Your job is to go into Aerin's house and steal a jeweled flagon he managed to get his hands on."

"Sounds simple enough. What's the catch?"

Mercer grinned. "So you're not as stupid as you look. The catch is he lives with a woman called Mjoll the Lioness, rightfully so. She's hell-bent on taking down the guild and won't hesitate to run a sword through your stomach if she catches you. The main key here is don't get caught."

Delvin nodded. "Alright. Any suggestions on how I go about doing that?"

"If you can manage to stay hidden from the guards, I'd actually recommend doing this one during the day. Mjoll usually spends the entire day shopping and trying to convince the Jarl to have something done about us with Aerin following her around like a pup. But if you prefer working in the dark, just be quiet. Should be a problem for the so-called 'master of sneaking,' right?"

Delvin listened to his instructions carefully. "Understood. I'll get it done."

Even though, logically, Mercer was right and getting the jeweled flagon during the daytime would be easier, it was Delvin's pride that persuaded him to wait until nightfall, when Mjoll and Aerin were in their house, sound asleep. He picked the lock with ease and stuck inside quietly. He made his way upstairs and opened a door to find Mjoll asleep in her bed, her sword on the table next to her. On a shelf directly above her head was the jeweled flagon. Delvin silently cursed himself out for not listening to Mercer's advice before reassuring himself that he was in fact the master of sneaking. He could do this. He would do this. He was going to pass this test and join the Thieves Guild and soon enough, everyone would recognize his talents and he would get bigger jobs with bigger payouts.

Slowly and quietly, Delvin crept up to Mjoll's bedside. Luckily for him, the warrior did not stir. Now all he had to do was reach up and take the flagon. He cursed his short stature due to his Breton roots and stood up to take the flagon, freezing when Mjoll shifted and turned over, still asleep, thank the Divines. He quickly snuck back out of the house and ran back to the guild, flagon in hand.

"Well, well, well," Mercer said, nodding approvingly at the flagon in Delvin's hand, "Not bad. Not bad at all. Here's your cut," he said, handing Delvin a full coin purse.

Delvin happily took the gold. "So I passed?" he asked, making his hands busy by counting out the coins.

Mercer simply smiled. "Welcome to the guild, friend."

**A/N: Once again, please leave your reviews. The story's not all about Delvin and Vex is definitely coming in the next chapter. I just wanted to establish a little backstory first.**


	2. Chapter 2

Over the next few months, Delvin had begun to make quite a name for himself in the Guild. His markings, now referred to as "Shadowmarks" were on almost every building in the five major cities in Skyrim. Mercer had asked him to write down all of their meanings for the rest of the Guild and now he had his own book. More importantly than that, of course, was the fact that he was wealthier than he had ever been in his entire life. Joining the Guild has given him more opportunities to get rich than he had ever imagined. Plus, with the influence of the powerful Maven Black Briar behind him, he felt practically untouchable. In fact, he felt so confident that nobody would recognize him, that he decided to go out and enjoy his second favorite pastime - sitting outside of Calixto's and watching young wannabe thieves who don't know any better try to pick the lock.

Whatever locks Calixto had purchased were clearly worth however much he paid for them because so far, only a handful of people have managed to succeed since the locks had changed and that was only after breaking nearly all of their lockpicks in the process. Delvin leaned against the stone wall opposite the House of Curiosities with a bottle of mead in his hand and waited. There were usually two or three who would try every time he came over. After a few minutes of waiting, he grinned as a small figure crouched up to the door. He couldn't quite make out the face of the intruder, only able to see their light blonde hair, almost as white as the snow falling from the sky. He chuckled to himself as the figure pulled out their lockpicks, eager for the entertainment for the next few minutes. However, Delvin found himself chocking on his own ale with surprise less than thirty seconds later.

The intruder broke in with ease.

Delvin could not believe his eyes. He had only seen a handful of people successfully break in and never that quickly. He had to know who this person was. More importantly, the Guild had to know who they were. He waited patiently from his spot on the wall until the white-haired thief exited Calixto's, newly acquired curiosities in tow. He downed the rest of his mead and followed. At this point he could tell by the thief's figure that she was clearly a woman, but everyhting else about her was a mystery. For a brief moment, he contemplated whether or not it would be considered safe to try to approach her. On one hand, she clearly knew what she was doing and while Delvin was far from elderly, he did not have age on his side. On the other, this woman could possibly be invaluable to the Guild. Besides, if anything went wrong, he had his sword to protect himself.

Just as his train of thought ended, Delvin found his back against a wall and a sword pointed at his throat. "Who are you and why are you spying on me?" the white-haired thief asked, her voice lower than Delvin had expected. This woman was just full of surprises, wasn't she?

"Now who said anything about spying?" Delvin asked, holding his hands up innocently. Even though he was on the older side, his charm had managed to get him in and out of pretty memorable situations with women, "I just happened to be out for a nightly stroll."

"Don't lie to me. I saw you watching me," the woman said, rolling her eyes.

"Then you would know that I saw you break into old Calixto's back there. Pretty impressive. Not a lot of people can do that now that he got himself new locks."

"So what are you, a guard?" she asked, bringing the sword closer to his face, "Going to rat me out?"

Delvin simply grinned, "'Course not. What good would that get me? I've seen what you can do first hand. You'll break out in no time."

"Then what is it that you want from me?"

"Tell me, lass, have you ever heard of the Thieves Guild?" he asked, still grinning.

In the darkness, Delvin could just barely make out the woman raising an eyebrow, "Of course I've heard of the Guild. Everyone's heard of the Guild."

"Aye, you're not wrong about that," he said, nodding, "So why haven't you joined up with them instead of going about this on your own?"

The woman let out a snort, "And split the gold I earned? Not a chance. Besides, I work alone."

Delvin smiled, "Aye, so did I. But let me tell you, joining up made me richer than I'd ever thought I'd be."

The woman let out a soft laugh and sheathed her sword, seeing that this man was clearly not a threat, "I gotta say, this is probably the strangest recruitment process I've ever been a part of."

"It's not a recruitment process unless you're actually recruited. So what do you say, lass? That was some of the finest lockpicking I've ever seen and I've been in this business for quite some time. The Guild could use someone like you."

The woman eyed Delvin carefully, almost as if she was studying him. After a few seconds, she spoke, "Fine," she decided, "but if I'm not getting those riches you're promising, I'm leaving."

Delvin grinned, "You're not the only one there. Come on, I'll take you down to Riften. There, you'll meet Mercer. He'll set you up right."

"I don't need an escort to get to Riften," she argued.

Delvin chuckled, "Oh I can tell. But it'll probably look better for you to come in with someone who can vouch for you. I'm Delvin, by the way. Delvin Mallory," he said, holding out his hand.

The white-haired woman looked at his hand before shaking it. "Vex."


End file.
